The Gryffindor common room was typically a scene of dissarray, and the second year class seemed particularly unruly. James Potter and his assumed stalker, Peter Pettigrew, sat at a far table playing a game of Exploding Snap that caused Peter to scream quite alot and to recieve far more singed fingertips than his opponent. Nearby the two, Remus Lupin was having a conversation with Lilly Evans, a retelling that caused the two of them to break into fits of laughter. Alice Jones was rolling up her homework, while giving Frank Longbottom obnoxious tips of how his own essay could be better completed, much to his chagrin. The only member of the class not set on disturbance, it seemed, was one very sallow boy, sitting in the corner with a high-backed armchair. The boy, named Sirius Black, usually spent his evenings apart from his house mates and tonight was not any different, that is, until he rose and walked over to James's table.
"Potter." He said quite shortly, causing Peter to look up in absolut terror and James to roll his eyes.
"What do you want, Black?" James drawled, flipping over another card as if Sirius calmly speaking to the one of them was perfectly normal.
"Today, in Potions, that Snape boy showed you up, no? That made you mad?"
"Come to gloat? Slytherins always stick together." James said, looking up from his game as Peter just sat there, frozen.
"No, come to address an idea to you. Why not a little revenge?" Sirius said.
"Seems like a very Slytherin idea, Black. Fair job in that one, I'll say," Lilly Evans said as she and Lupin appeared behind Sirius.
"Now, Evans. I think Black might be onto something." James said, cautioning Lilly with his hand and looking up to Sirius expectantly, "Well, then. Your idea?"
"I'd be much better off saying it if Mudblood here left." Black said shortly, and Remus spoke up.
"Don't you dare, Black, she's never done anything to you." He said, and Black turned to look him sharply in the eye, his gray eyes (that matched those of the other Black Hogwartians who now occupied the Slytherin dungeons) were oft frightening.
"Actually, I'd like it if Lilly stayed a bit," James said, sending a wink toward Lilly.
"Ugh," she said in response to James, "There's no use in me listening in on this braindead scheme anyway. I'll be to bed."
She turned to climb the staircase with Remus not far behind when Sirius called to him. "Lupin, we'll be needing your help."
Remus cast a condescending look toward James, Sirius, and Peter (who, suprisingly, still sat in his agape-mouth pose, eyes not moved from Sirius) and then back toward Lilly on the girl's staircase, who shot him a warm smile and waved goodnight.
Remus drug a chair to the table, as did Sirius and they both placed themselves with James and Peter.
"So what'd you have in mind, Black?" James asked.
"A prank. See, Snape is downright petrified of ants."
"Ants?" James asked, laughter in his voice.
"Yeah, ants. So I was thinking we could send a few into his bedsheets so when he awoke, he'd nearly wet himself."
"Good plan," James said, but was interrupted by Remus.
"What's in it for you, Black?" He asked, sending a dark look Sirius's way.
Sirius looked him straight in the eye and told him, "The pleasure of seeing the pansy squirm."
"What'd he do to you? Surely this isn't just a chance for James to avenge himself, and you being a Black must only do things if someone harms you."
"Never thought you'd be one to judge a person by their name. He came on to my little cousin Andromeda, incase you needed to know. She's a first year and doesn't need slime like that hanging 'round her. I protect my family, not just myself."
"Fair enough," Remus said, a soft grin of understanding now on his face. "Besides, he called Lilly a mudblood the other day. I'm willing to help."
"That's a boy," James responded, a manicial glint in his eyes and a smirk on his face, "So how are we to get into the dormitory, oh wise one?"
"Oh, that's the easy part. I have the password, family ties are something else, and we could prolly sneak out in time, though we'd have to be unusually quiet."
"I can solve that problem," James said, whispering to the boys of his invisibility cloak.
"Perfect. And Lupin, I'm betting you know the Charm on how to keep the ants between his sheets so he can't shake them out?"
"Of course." He responded, waving a hand in front Peter's face, which was still contorted in shock, "Peter? Pe-ter?" And the threesome had a good laugh when Peter recovered, still shaking a bit.
After they returned to the common room, bursting out laughing at the reaction Snape was bound to have, they ascended the steps to the dormitory and got ready for bed. When Sirius reached over to extinguish his bedside lamp, he was greeted by James's warm face in the bed beside him.
"Look, Bla-- I mean, Sirius," James said, "I had fun tonight. You're not so bad."
"Maybe we could do this again sometime," Lupin said, smiling as he closed the hangings of his four poster.
Sirius smiled as he too closed his hangings and laid his head down on his pillow. Maybe there was life in Gryffindor house, after all.
Author's note: and so, the Marauders were formed. The first bit of Sirius's rebellion against his family, too. The start of beautiful things! Haha just kidding, cos I love the Blacks. I declare, I'm churning out fanfictions like they're butter. See its summer, and if I just sit there I think about people -- one in particular who no one knows but still shall remain nameless -- and I can't do that, so the I think about ... Harry Potter. Cos I have no life. Hah. Course I love the fact that in the beginning, no way in Hell was Remus trusting Sirius. Oh, and I don't think they sound twelve! I can't write like a twelve year old! But the Alice / Frank tidbit in the beginning was nicely set off the Good Ship R/Hr. Smiles.
Review, please!